Caturday: Celebrations and Reflections

Have you seen next week’s cover of The New Yorker that’s been floating around the internet yet? Well, obviously you have now if you’re reading this post. It’s nothing short of SQUEEEEE! Bert and Ernie nestled together on the couch snuggin’ while watching The Supremes in their robes on the TV.

The Supremes did good on knocking the wind out of DOMA, but it was a long time coming. They’re still in the doghouse for all their other despicable and unreal rulings this week. So while I did pop some champagne to celebrate the good things going on, including the tumbling down of DOMA, no cookies to the Supremes on this. I give the credit to all the grassroots LGBT activists and their growing accumulation of allies who have worked so hard for so many years to bring Wednesday’s ruling to fruition. Well done, everyone! The 21st century is finally starting to arrive…it’s here, it’s queer, and we as a society are not only going to live with it–we are going to live it up! Watch out, y’all, I am so happy for our LGBT sisters and brothers and for all of us as a ONE LOVE-ONE WORLD, I could about start doing some of my inner feminist Pollyanna somersaults all over this page. (I am an absolute klutz with no athletic motor skill coordination whatsoever, so that is truly a feat!)

After the Supreme Court’s landmark decision that the Defense Of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, it’s time to look at the top 10 ways heterosexual marriage will be affected now that it’s not being defended.

1. Uh…

2. Uhhh…

3. Hmm…

4. Just a sec…

5. It’s like… You know how… It’s like when things… Right?

6. We swear we just had one

7. It’s coming… Wait for it…

8. Hey! Look over there!

9. Wait, where are you going?

10. Global warming?

Here’s what the wonderful Joyce L. Arnold of “Queer Talk” has been blogging over at Taylor Marsh’s, which I think gives a pretty good overview and is instructive in terms of “Where we go from here”…Note: I am only quoting excerpts here, interspersed with a bit of commentary from me, so take the time to click over and read the pieces in full when you get the chance:

The much anticipated Supreme Court rulings on DOMA and Prop 8 were announced this morning.[…] The fight for marriage equality isn’t over. Everyone knows that. But today is huge, and it’s time to do some celebrating.

Post SCOTUS, post DOMA and Prop 8 decisions, the “now what” in LGBT equality question is getting attention, and one response to that question comes by way of the Campaign for Southern Equality. The organization didn’t just come into existence, but they were very ready for this moment. Other LGBT groups are, too, of course, from local to state to national levels. I find the efforts of CSE to be particularly inspiring precisely because they refuse to comply with the “just move to where you’re more accepted” arguments – and we hear them regularly – but stay, and fight for equality. There are a lot of people doing that, in the South and other more “challenging,” but definitely changing toward the better, areas.

About CSE: (emphasis added throughout)

Based in North Carolina, the Campaign for Southern Equality is an effort to assert the full humanity and equality of LGBT people living in the South.

One of their projects is the WE DO Campaign, which

… involves LGBT couples in the Southern communities where they live requesting – and being denied – marriage licenses in order to call for full equality under federal law and to resist unjust state laws.

These WE DO actions serve to make the impact of discriminatory laws visible to the general public; they illustrate what it looks like when LGBT people are treated as second-class… citizens under the law.

Take less than three minutes to watch.

Here is the video Joyce has spotlighted, which is well worth the watch if you haven’t seen it yet. Very inspiring (this roundup continues after the video, so please keep scrolling after you view it):

More from Joyce’s post:

Celebrations continue. Statements agreeing and disagreeing with the decisions are still coming, from the White House to “citizen on the street.” Most likely the next sermon topic was an easy one for many, pro and con marriage equality.

And lots of analysis, which is obviously important, continues being done. It includes wide recognition that while this really is one of those moments we can call “historic,” there are 37 states with no marriage recognition; there are big questions about how same-sex couples are treated in terms of the military and immigration; and among other things, there is no federal employment protection. None of that detracts from the celebration. In fact, equality proponents in all of those “issues,” and more, can be energized by the SCOTUS decisions.

At The Advocate, “Message at Rallies: Celebrate Today, Fight Tomorrow.” At a post-SCOTUS decision rally in West Hollywood, with about 4000 people present, screenwriter Dustin Lanc Black said:

‘(I)t is time for each and every one of us to take that strength you now feel as Californians, and take it to Texas, and take it to Virginia … take it to Holland, Michigan … to Altoona, Pennsylvania. … You need to take your strength to these places, and share this feeling with this nation so we no longer leave a single one of our brothers or our sisters behind, no matter … which state they live.’

‘Today’s historic decisions are a significant leap forward for freedom and justice for same-sex couples and their families, the LGBT community and for our nation — and a lot more work needs to be done to deliver marriage equality to the rest of our nation’s same-sex couples and their families and full equality in every other respect for all LGBT people,’ said Rea Carey, Task Force Executive Director.

Parties continue around the nation, as they should. There’s a lot to celebrate. Statements and analyses will keep coming for a long time, I’d guess, as the impact of the decisions is made clear in practice. And advocacy and actions will continue, in all regions and states of the nation. Look to every region, including the South.

Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A, tweeted his sadness about the Supreme Court decisions regarding DOMA and Prop 8, but then rather quickly deleted it. That seems a fair representation of Cathy’s efforts to somehow balance an anti-LGBT – at least related to marriage equality – while also, as a spokesperson put it, provide “genuine hospitality to everyone.”

Sad day for our nation; founding fathers would be ashamed of our gen. to abandon wisdom of the ages re: conerstone of strong societies

No word about what the founding mothers would think.

Ok, pardon me but I have to interrupt here to cackle my witchy woman feminist ass off. Joyce goes on to cover the ins-and-outs of Cathy’s trying to have his corporate cake and eat it too while lamenting his sadness over…what seems to me a more perfect union. That appears to be the source of Cathy and his ilk’s lament. They don’t want this union to become more perfect, because that requires giving up their various privileges and twisted means of ‘control.’ (Though it’s always hard not to ask for the most vehement of the homophobic crowd, if they are in control at all or really they are deep in the closet. Because, let’s let the elephant out the room, y’all. That’s the only reason legalizing gay marriage would affect a so-called heterosexual marriage that would need any defending from it.)

Anyhow, here is the graphic because it applies to what Joyce has highlighted about the sad, lamenting reactions to the DOMA/Prop8 reversal:

“Oh, the sound of male ego. You travel halfway across the galaxy, and it’s still the same song.” Star Trek: The Original Series, 1×06 (“Mudd’s Women”)

Joyce concludes by saying the following, which I totally agree:

My bet is the founding mothers and fathers just might approve of “liberty and justice for all” efforts. And since we’ve more or less (with some significant “less” moments and issues) been focused on that goal for quite some time, and the sky hasn’t even started falling, we’re safe to keep at it. And in trouble if we don’t.

The Respect for Marriage Act (RMA), filed by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) in the Senate and by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) in the House, would completely repeal DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act). The Supreme Court decisions were a big step in that direction, but not complete.

Pivoting from “gay rights are human rights” (smiles in thoughts of Hillary and Hillary 2016) to “women’s rights are human rights,” I want to touch on that article,“It’s a Wendy Davis Nation Now,” that I briefly linked to above from Salon though, because I have a very revealing excerpt I wanted to highlight from it:

For years — particularly the ones Democrats spent in the wilderness, losing national elections — the party’s pro-choice stance was blamed for losing so-called values voters. Axelrod pointed out how that had changed: “These were motivational issues for people on our side … What’s interesting to me is that these were once wedge issues for Republicans. Now some of them are working as wedge issues against Republicans. And it shows a shift of attitudes.”

Gay rights, of course, have long since lost any traction as a wedge issue in Republicans’ favor in all but the narrowest districts. It remains to be seen how the immigration reform debate will play out politically, but the 2012 election and its “self-deportation” rhetoric is widely seen to have driven away Latinos and Asians. And of course there was defunding Planned Parenthood and Todd Akin. But, Axelrod added, abortion wasn’t part of that. Or, as he put it, “Abortion’s a separate discussion.”

If this week was any indication — along with recent protests in Wisconsin and Ohio, and possibly more to come — that may not prove true.

Thus, if we are truly entering Wendy Davis Nation, then we must be exiting not just Bush country, but also Rove-Axelrod’s understanding of women’s rights as a “separate discussion.” Keeping my ears open and my eyes wide and waiting to see what happens next!

Before I end this post, just for some Caturday fun, and for purposes of smashing the patriarchy with my crazy cat lady pink-ness, here are pictures of my nails that I got done last night (click for larger view):

And, on that note, Sky Dancers, I’m going to turn the soapbox over to you. Do the wonderful thing you do in the comments y’all, and have a great weekend!

Mona — I appreciate the sharing of thoughts, and am especially pleased to be on Caturday with you and the wonderful people of Sky Dancing 🙂

And I’ll encourage everyone to check out your Pink Sneaks link. I wish I could be in Austin Monday, but I’ll be following what’s happening as closely as possible. Hope there will be a livestream of the rally. I’ve not seen anything about that, but maybe I’ve missed it. From the post “okay, we didn’t pass it, who knew all you people would be looking at the clock so closely, you unruly, lacking in decency and decorum, Occupy-like mob, etc., etc.” scramble of words from Dewhurst and Perry, I think my favorite was Dewhurst insisting he hadn’t lost control.

Wendy Davis and Jeremy Bird set out to fight for Texas: Yesterday, we suggested that liberals and progressives stop begging the Court to protect them.

We suggested that we liberals and progressives should get off our keisters and go out and fight for the state of Texas in standard political ways.

We can’t do that with our world-famous snark, which is mainly designed to entertain and convince us of our own greatness. Last night, however, Rachel Maddow interviewed Jeremy Bird, a senior adviser from Battleground Texas.

It isn’t easy, and nothing is guaranteed. But what follows is the type of thing we had in mind in yesterday’s post.

…

Two suggestions: When we talk to those unregistered voters, let’s not insult them with a string of dick jokes about how stupid they are.

Final suggestion: Let’s learn how to talk to registered voters, to convince them to vote for Dems and liberals. Liberals have to learn how to talk to regular people, a process which has to begin with genuine respect for people who aren’t exactly like we are.

Let’s hope that people like Bird can get out there and make it happen. In the long run, the Snark Generation will almost surely be a disaster for progressive interests.

It’s lots of fun to waste our time yelling at people like Serena Williams and Paula Deen because they aren’t as perfectly scripted as we are. It’s fun to make up stupid shit about people like Howard Kurtz.

It’s fun to parade around declaring our greatness, but does it ever get anything done? Maybe we can pay the gang from Salon to go away and snark in private. Jeremy Bird made it sound like he comes from a more serious place.

To watch last night’s segment, click here. Try to ignore the way it starts.

“I love this state,” Wendy Davis said. You have to know how to say that.

Frankly, I would have been surprised if that old plant had one. I don’t think the owner knew “come here” from “sic ’em” about fertilizer plants or much else except his farming profession. Though he should have hired people who knew plants and safety.

I agree, though I also think progs/fauxgressives (and regressives too for that matter) are eternally confused about snark, satire, and which way to direct it. The point is to speak truth to power, not take easy cheap shots at people who are either on their way out or never had any real power to begin with. Enough bitching about the Kardashian women, it’s Ryan Seacrest and his productions that have polluted television land…

Right, I just wanted to add that here. Cuz I like snark. I just don’t really get the point of hipster and fauxgressive use of “irony”… i don’t think even they know what point they are trying to make half the time… Lol

Interesting article in Foreign Policy on why Russia loves to tweak US re Snowden, but China is too smart to do so. “Squeal Like A Pig.”

Read the last paragraph:

The United States does have a formidable enemy — but we can see it in the mirror. China’s aggression toward its neighbors in the South China Sea, or its assault on the computers of U.S. companies, poses less of a threat to U.S. interests than does America’s own failure to educate its citizens or build and repair vital infrastructure — both of which China is doing, legally and openly, at an astonishingly rapid clip. The United States doesn’t really have enemies any more. It has rivals — lots and lots of rivals. And right now, it’s defeating itself.

As the defense, West had a reason to malign the young woman. That’s our “justce” system at the moment. So him I kind of understand, in the courtroom. but all the other creeps who jumped on the bandwagon ought to be shunned for awhile.

Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner (D) has proposed a bill forcing men to “see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency” before allowing them to get a prescription for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs, the Dayton Daily News reports.

“Turner said if state policymakers want to legislate women’s health choices… they should also be able to legislate men’s reproductive health.”

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